Edwin W. Rawlings, Retired Air Force General

The sky was not the limit for Edwin W. Rawlings, former pilot and Air Force general.

He not only helped the Air Force and the U.S. Department of Defense acquire its first computer in 1946, but after retiring from the military in 1959 he launched a second career as president of General Mills and board member of a half-dozen other corporations, including Weyerhaeuser of Federal Way.

"He was just a remarkable guy," said his son Charles Frederick "Gerry" Rawlings of Bellevue. "He had a lot of energy, a lot of foresight, and a lot of insight."

"Dad was a promoter-promoter. He had lots of ideas and knew how to get people excited and get them working on a problem."

Gen. Rawlings, who suffered a stroke 10 years ago and who had battled circulatory problems caused by diabetes, died Monday (Dec. 8) at a nursing home in Auburn, where he had lived for the past eight years. He was 93.

The Minnesota native attended Hamline University in St. Paul on an athletic scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in economics in 1927. He joined the Air Corps Reserve, did photography with the Army Air Corps, and directed construction of an airfield in Hawaii.

In 1939, he earned a master's degree at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.

He then was posted to Wright-Patterson Field in Dayton, Ohio, as assistant budget officer, chief of the production resources section. In the 1950s, Gen. Rawlings headed the Air Force Air Materiel Command. His military honors include the Distinguished Service Medal with First Oak Leaf Cluster and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He joined General Mills in 1959 as financial vice president, becoming president in 1961 and chairman of the board in 1967. He retired in 1969.

He was credited with the company's familiar script capital "G" logo.

"The big `G' insignia of General Mills was Dad's idea," said his son. "He said, `We ought to have a big G on the product that tells everybody what this company is.' "

Gen. Rawlings was inducted into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame in 1992.

Other survivors include his sons Peter Edwin Rawlings of Williamsburg, Va.; Richard William Rawlings, Minneapolis, Minn.; and John Frasier Rawlings, Seattle; and his sister, Marcella Engerbretson, Tracy, Minn. His wife, Kathryn Fradkin Rawlings, died in 1990.

Remembrances may go to the Edwin W. Rawlings Memorial Fund, c/o Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO 80840.